The Clan
by narutorocks13
Summary: Hinata a stuttering yet strong kunochi, Sasuke a strong and cocky shinobi, Naruto the nine tails jinnchuiki. What can they do when they work together and form unbreakable bonds ?
1. Nice to meet you

~ Hyuuga compound~

"Hinata-sama, it is time for you to wake up. Today is your first day of school."

"Thank you for waking me," she called back politely to the elderly branch member through the door.

_"I really pushed myself yesterday with "family training," and my own training on top of that," _she thought as she pulled on her favorite tank top. It was lavender on the top half, and covering her midriff was closely knit fish netting. She pulled on her black shorts and her fishnet shorts over that. She looked at herself in her full length mirror and smiled; being in her training clothes made her feel confident and powerful. Her father would never approve or even let her use these as pajamas since they were so unladylike and revealing, but they let her move and were super breathable. She took a longing look at her reflection and went into her closet, grabbing her tan jacket and baggy blue capris.

She began attaching her kunai, shuriken, and first aid pouches on different parts of her legs. Her kunai pouch lay on her right mid-thigh, shuriken pouch on left thigh just below her hip, and lastly her first aid box was connected to her back hooked though her belt. Her mother had told her that you can never be too careful when it comes to safety, thus she had begun to ask Ko to teach her a bit of medical ninjustu. She quickly ran a brush through her fine indigo hair; she had it short since it always got in her eyes and in the way during training also it was difficult to keep in order when it was long. She looked one last time into the mirror to make sure everything was in order for her first day at the academy.

She carefully slid the door to her room aside and went into the hallway, silently closing the door behind her. She glided down the mahogany halls like a ghost without a sound; if any normal person had seen her they would have seen an adult instead of a girl who had just turned nine. Then again, Hyuuga weren't normal people. Oh no, they were better than that. They were smarter, stronger, quieter, and more mature than other people and ninja; it was just another "unique" part of being part of "the clan".

She glided past the kitchen doors but came to an immediate stop when she got a small whiff of cinnamon. She calmly stepped backwards and stuck her head through a small crack in the door; she knew there were cinnamon rolls in there. Carefully she sneaked into the kitchen to grab one. She glanced around; seeing that no one was in there, she discreetly grabbed one of the warmth-emanating buns with her pale, slender fingers. She took a bite and was in her own personal heaven thanks to the melted icing, chewy dough, and spices blending together perfectly. But, as they say: all good things must come to an end.

"Hinata-sama, what are you doing?" a voice behind her whispered playfully into her ear.

"N-nothing Ko, j-just making s-sure everything is in o-order. Y-yep everything l-looks just f-fine," she stuttered as she tried to hide the rest of her half-eaten cinnamon bun behind her back. Her cheeks starting to turn pink from being caught by her guard Ko, he had brown, spiky hair and a hitai-ate that covered his head like a bandana.

"Hinata-sama, you have icing on your cheek," he snickered at her attempt to cover the evidence.  
>This was one of the reasons Hinata was glad that Ko was her bodyguard. Even though he was a branch member, he didn't hold any resentment towards the main house. He laughed and smiled on a daily basis, even though this was unusual for a Hyuuga, but that made Hinata love him even more. He could make her laugh and had her best interests at heart. He was like the big brother she had always wanted.<p>

"W-well I thought I s-should c-check if t-they w-were okay t-to serve. Y-yep, and I b-believe they a-are," she squeaked as she placed the rest into her small mouth.  
>"It's all right Hinata-sama; I had them made for you since they're your favorite. I thought they might help you have a good first day of school," he said gently ruffling her hair as he grabbed one for himself and popped it into his mouth.<p>

"W-well thank you Ko," she replied with a happy smile while snatching another warm bun. After they had finished eating, Hinata began to grab the used plates.

"No Hinata-sama, there's no need for you to do it. It is my job and other branch member's jobs to do," he said urgently, not wanting Hinata to have to clean up, being the heir to the Hyuuga clan.

"If you say so Ko," she reluctantly said as she put the plates back on the table.

"Are you ready for school Hinata-sama?" Ko asked while gathering the two plates in his hands.

"Yes, b-but allow m-me to grab my s-school things," she replied as she began walking towards her room for the bag she had filled with new scrolls, and brushes for notes. She quickly grabbed her plain lavender bag off her new desk. As she crossed through her doorway, she nearly ran into her older cousin Neji. She loved her cousin a lot; he had gone through so much even though he was only a year above her.

His father had died when they was younger, though she did not know why. If anyone were to wonder what a Hyuuga was supposed to be, Neji would be the perfect example. Calm, collected, expressionless, and a prodigy: the perfect Hyuuga. Yet while he had all of these, there was still so much hate in his eyes - not only for her, but for every main branch member. It hurt her heart to see the pain in his cold eyes.

"M-my apologies, Neji-nii-san," she said as she grazed past him gracefully, and he went by without even acknowledging her presence or words.  
>She sighed and began to walk towards the front gates to meet Ko and go to school.<p>

~ Uchiha Compound ~

"Sweetheart, it's time to wake up. You need to get ready for school," Mikoto Uchiha said as she rubbed her youngest son's back.

"I have fresh tomatoes and rice balls filled with bonito since today is your first day of school. I know they're your favorite," she remarked tauntingly. He snapped one eye open, declaring he was definitely awake.

"Well if you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to tickle you awake." She then began to tickle her playful little nine-year-old son.

"Stop! Stop! I'm awake," Sasuke cried, out-of-breath but smiling all the same.

"Good! While I'm here I'll help you get dressed for your first day of the academy."

"I can get dressed by myself mom," he said when she took a step towards his dresser. Going over, he pulled out his dark blue Uchiha shirt and a pair of his white shorts shooing her out the door. He proudly strode out of his room towards the lovely smell emanating from the kitchen.

"Nice to see you dressed sleepyhead!" Mikoto said as she continued to set food onto the table. He quickly began to scarf down the ripe tomatoes and rice balls.

"Slow down tiger. The food is not going to run off," she giggled at her son's eating tactics.

"All done kaa-san, love you," he said as he ran up from behind and hugged his mom, surprising her.

"I love you too Sasuke-kun. Now go and grab your pack and head to school, or you'll be late."

"Bye, kaa-san," he said as he ran out the door and though the Uchiha compound.

"Good morning, Sasuke-chan."

"Morning, baa-chan."

"Good luck today, Sasuke-chan."

"Morning, Itoko-san."

This is what Sasuke heard regularly when he left his house since it was at the very back of the compound - he was glad he had such a big family. As he ran out of the gates, he passed a girl with a ninja beside her. Too excited to walk, he began to run to the academy for his first day of ninja training.

It was a beautiful day outside: birds were singing; children were laughing; it was perfect

~ The Academy Building ~

After she walked to the classroom, she sat all the way in the back so she could observe others around her. Ko taught her that it is best to know about your friends and foes, and the best way to do that is through observation. She began to look around and the pink hair immediately caught her attention; it was a girl. She had a red ribbon in her hair and looked very shy and quiet. She had to be a Haruno since no other clan has that color hair and jade eyes.

She sat near a blonde girl with blue, pupil-less eyes who had her hair in a high ponytail. The traits she had could only be those of a Yamanaka since they were not otherwise common in Konoha. She was talking at a rapid speed to the girl with pink hair and a few other girls that were crowded around her desk.

Continuing her observations she found a boy with a large jacket that had a collar that went all the way up to his nose. He had dark hair and wore sunglasses even though he was inside. He obviously was an Aburame and a well-trained one from the buzzing she heard from his coat.

Looking towards the front of room, she laid eyes on a boy with brown spiky hair talking animatedly to a few other boys. Seeing the dog atop his head and the small red markings on his cheeks, she came to the conclusion that he was an Inuzuka.

Her eyes examined the other three boys he was talking to. One had a dark brown hair put up in a high, spiky ponytail, making his head a pineapple shape. From that, and from the crest on his shoulder, he had to be a Nara.

The boy to the left of him was chubby in a cute way. He had red swirls on his cheeks marking him an Akimichi, though it also helped that she had seen his family crest on his shirt when she passed him the hall.

The boy to the right of the Nara was very unique; she couldn't really place him since he didn't look like a civilian or a clan member. He had golden hair and cerulean eyes, and even though these are Yamanaka traits, his hair and eyes were far darker shades than ever been seen on a Yamanaka.

So, that meant that in her class there were seven kids, including herself, from high class ninja clans: Haruno, Yamanaka, Aburame, Inuzuka, Nara, and Akimichi. All the rest were obviously civilians; one could tell from their clothes and the way they held themselves. Grabbing her medical cream, she applied some to her chakra points which were still red from yesterday's training.

She jumped when she heard the door slam. Looking up, it was student who had accidentally shut the door with too much force. He had spiky ebony hair that looked very much like a duck's rear end. He turned around for a minute, and she caught a glimpse of the Uchiha fan on the back of his navy shirt. "And then there were eight," she joked to herself.

'So most likely, all the clan kids will pass since we've been trained for this since before we could crawl. At least, that's how my life has been.' She thought calculatingly.

Ko had told Hinata that usually nine people from each class actually go on to become ninja. They would probably put clan kids together to get strong teams such as the Ino-Shika-Cho team. It's kind of weird for a seven year old girl to know all these things about clans and the way the ninja system worked, but when you're small and quiet, people tend to forget that you are there and you get to learn some very interesting things. Also, the forbidden section in the library is not very well guarded.

A voice shook her out of her thoughts "Hey, can I sit here?" The blonde haired boy had left his friends since there weren't enough seats.

"Sure," she replied as the teacher entered the classroom slightly out of breath and told us to quiet down.

"Good morning class. I am Iruka Umino, but you will call me Iruka-sensei and this is my assistant Mizuki-sensei. We will be your teachers for the placement testing, there are four sections: a written portion, ninjustu, taijustu, and a physical portion. For the first two days we will be giving assessments to see what you can do. First, can anyone do any ninjustu?"

Five people raised their hands.

"Ok, please make a line to show me these jutsu. You're up first."

"What a drag," Shikamaru said as he went through a few hand signs. His shadow began to stretch and then connected with Iruka's. He then lifted his arm, and Iruka's did the same; he lifted his leg, and Iruka followed. Then he released the jutsu.

"Very impressive job," Iruka praised while writing something down, "Next up."

"My name is Ino Yamanaka," the girl next in line said, and with a flip of her ponytail, she went through a few hand signs. Holding her hands up in a rectangle, she aimed her jutsu at Mizuki-sensei. Her body began to crumple, but Shikamaru caught her before her head struck the floor.

"Check this out Iruka-sensei! I'm Mizuki-sensei!" she said girlishly hand on her hip blowing him a kiss from Mizuki's body.

"Interesting Ino, you can release it now," he said in approval, writing something down on his clipboard. "Next," he called.

"Shino Aburame," he said from behind his high collar. He lifted his arms, and many insects began to crawl out. Many cries of cool, gross and ewe exploded from the other students as the bugs formed a shapeless blob, transforming into a perfect replica of Shino.

"Very nice, Shino," Iruka said, once again scribbling onto the paper. "Next."

"Hinata Hyuuga. I d-do not b-believe it w-would be safe for m-me to show y-you on a p-person, but I c-can activate my b-Byakugan and d-do Juuken ," she said quietly.

"Ok, can you activate it?"

"Sure Byakugan." As she said that, the veins around her eyes began to bulge.

"Very nice, Hinata," he said. "Last but not least, you're up."

"I think that we need to go outside for my jutsu," Sasuke smirked cockily.

"Class, let's head outside." Iruka said. Once everyone had made their way outside, Iruka gave the signal for Sasuke to begin. He went through hand signs, put his fingers to his lips, and breathed out a huge fireball.

"Wow Sasuke, that is an amazingly good job," Iruka said. "Ok class; let's go inside for the written assessment."

The written assessment was about an hour long and contained questions that were moderately difficult, well at least for kids like Hinata and Sasuke they were. For kids who hadn't been studying ninja skills their whole life the test would be near impossible.

After the hour of assessment was over Iruka strolled to the front of the room and announced, "We are going to do our physical assessment after lunch, so eat light. Dismissed."

As the kids raced outside Hinata was pushed out the door blinded by the sun. She quickly closed her eyes and didn't see the stair bellow and began to fall. Bracing herself for the impact against the hard concrete but instead she felt herself being caught by a thin pair of arms.

"Are you ok?" a voice asked. She looked up and saw that she had been caught by the Uchiha boy. Now that she was close to him, she noticed his eyes, which were as dark as the night's sky and his skin, which was as pale, if not more pale than, hers - a feat in itself.

"Do you need to go to the nurse?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"N-no, I'm fine. Y-you can put me d-down now," she replied, trying to keep her face from turning red.

"Oh yeah, sorry," he said, a blush gracing his features while he gently placed her down.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. And you?" he asked.

"Hinata Hyuuga. Nice to m-meet you Uchiha-san, would you l-like to eat lunch with me?" she replied.

"Yeah I'd love to eat lunch with you. Let me go grab my bento." While he ran off to grab his lunch, she walked towards a bench. She sat down and began to unwrap her lunch when a shadow blocked the light from above. She looked up and saw the blonde boy who had sat next to her in class.

"Can I sit next to you again?" he asked with a grin.

"Sure, I would love for you to sit by me," she quickly answered.

"Hinata-chan, who's sitting with you? Sasuke asked, smiling as he sat down on her other side. "I don't know, what's your name?" she asked, feeling foolish that she had sat with him twice and still did not know his name.

"Naruto Uzumaki," he replied opening his cup of ramen.

"W-would you like s-some of m-my bento?" she asked, knowing that eating ramen would make him energetic for about an hour, and then he would crash and be very sleepy the rest of the day, and we still had three hours of school left.

"Naw, I always eat ramen, but thanks," Naruto replied as he slurped up the ramen.

"No, I insist. Y-you will be tired if you j-just eat ramen."

"Fine, if you will stop that stuttering," He said with a sly grin.

"You dobe, she can't just stop stuttering," Sasuke said.

"Why? I've never stuttered before why does she?"

"Its cause you're different people you idiot! You probably hurt her feelings you dobe."

"Oh no, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I just didn't understand! Please forgive me Hinata-chan!" he said loudly, his eyes full of sorrow.

"It's f-fine Naruto-san, y-you did n-not mean t-to," she said with a smile.

"If I promise not to make fun of your stuttering again can we be friends Hinata-chan?"

"Of c-course we c-can Naruto-san in f-fact I would l-like that v-very much!"

"Thanks so much Hinata-chan!" he said, lifting her off the bench with a big hug "and call me Naruto or Naruto-kun no need to be so formal." He wore a huge smile as he set her back on the bench.

"Same goes for me Hinata" Sasuke added.

She was so happy to have two new friends that she began to hum a little tune (the tune her mother used to lull her to sleep with). As she ate her bento, she watched Naruto snatch a few pieces here and there.

After a few minutes of peaceful quietness, they heard the bell ring. Quickly wrapping up the rest of her bento, she ran into class with the two boys at her side.


	2. Assessments

The Clan chapter - edited

"Okay, everyone, this is the physical assessment. First you will put these on," Iruka said, holding up leg warmers.

"What are those fashion disasters?" Ino asked, literally cringing away from them.

"These are chakra weights. You pulse a little chakra into them, and they get heavier. Today they will each be about seven pounds, and you will go through this course wearing them." Gesturing towards the horror behind him, "You will run a kilometer; climb the fifteen meter wall, cross the monkey bars upside down. Crawl under the netting, and then Mizuki will remove the weights, you will swim three laps and sprint a half kilometer to the finish line.

"How on earth are we going to do all that on our first day?" a civilian cried out

"We don't expect you to finish. This is just to gauge your strength and endurance," he replied. Looking at his sheet, he called out the first pair of names.

As the assessment went, on most of the civilian kids made it to a little ways on the monkey bars before quitting. Ino and Sakura got half way through their first lap in the pool, while Choji and Shikamaru both quit just before the crawling. Surprisingly, four people completed the course. Of these, one came close to beating the record, and two students actually beat the record. Hinata had been seven seconds short of beating the record, while Naruto had beat the record by six and Sasuke close behind, beat it by four. The other person to finish the course was Shino. Many were surprised by how fast he was. As the last kid finished, Iruka dismissed them.

While Hinata gathered her things, she heard someone trying to get her attention. Turning to find out what was needed, she found Naruto and Sasuke,  
>"Hey Hinata-chan. I was wondering if I could walk home with you?"<br>"I w-would love to w-walk home with y-you. Naruto-kun, w-would you like to c-come with us?" Hinata asked, happy to be with her two new friends.

"Sure, I'd love to walk with you and teme." Naruto replied, throwing his arms behind his head.

"So N-naruto, what c-clan are you f-from?" Hinata asked.

"I'm not from a clan."

"What! How do you have so much stamina and strength?" Sasuke exclaimed.

"I was w-wondering the s-same. I've n-never heard of a c-civilian that can k-keep up with c-clan members with j-just genetics," Hinata added.

"Well since I was young, I've had to be able to run long and far," he answered, his eyes downcast and his tone closing the subject for the moment.

"So, w-what did you t-think of your f-first day at t-the academy?" Hinata asked, trying to pull the tension from the air.

"It all sounds fun, except for the writing stuff, which sounds boring." Naruto said, crinkling his nose at the thought.

"Same here." Sasuke added

"Well I t-think that r-reading and l-learning about t-the mistakes of p-previous ninja c-can help us avoid t-those mistakes in the f-future," Hinata said with a kind mediating smile.

"Guess that makes sense. It's a good thing that you think of things like that since me and the teme don't," Naruto said, praising Hinata.

"Thank you f-for walking m-me home, I'll s-see you t-tomorrow," she said gliding into the huge complex.

After she was out of sight, Naruto began to walk off. "See ya teme," he said.

"Naruto, why do you call me that? I haven't done anything to you."

"Same reason you call me a dope - we are rivals now."

"Rivals for what?"

"Oh, being a ninja, among other things," he grinned.

"Among what things?" Sasuke asked, utterly confused at this point.

"You'll figure it out if you grow up a little," he said over his shoulder, beginning to walk out of sight.

As the three went different directions, so did their nights.

As Hinata came through the gates of the compound, Ko stepped out of the shadows.

"Hinata-sama, I do not think it is wise to be friends with those boys," he said, concerned.

"And w-why is t-that, Ko?" she asked

"Well, the Uchiha can be notoriously competitive, and the other boy is very disliked throughout the village."

"Well, I know that Sasuke would never hurt me, and I don't care what the other villagers think of me," she replied heatedly, without a single stutter.

"Forgive me, Hinata-sama. I didn't mean to anger you; I just thought you should know," he was surprised, having never heard Hinata get mad before.

"I'm s-sorry for s-snapping at y-you, Ko. They a-are my f-friends, and I l-like them v-very much."

"No need for an apology. I'm glad that you've made new friends, but make sure they aren't seen by Hiashi-sama, or you and I both could get into trouble."

"Thank y-you, Ko. I n-need a r-rest. You m-may take y-your leave. P-please retrieve m-me at s-six for dinner," she said, dismissing him.

Swiftly walking into her room and silently slid the door closed behind her, she quietly made a bunshin and had it lay down. She leapt out the window towards the Konoha forest for some training. Little did she know that Neji had watched her leave and silently followed her to see what she was up to. She quickly took to the trees, racing towards her favorite training spot. Neji was surprised at her speed; he could barely keep up with her. Finding her spot, she slid into a perfect Juuken and began striking one of the training dummies. After about a minute, the dummy cracked and shattered into a thousand different pieces.

"Yes, that took less time than last," she said, pumping her fist in the air. After seeing her destroy the dummy and then her outburst, Neji's eyebrows were up in the bandages on his forehead in disbelief. After an hour and half, he had seen Hinata shatter at least twenty dummies and had watched her do one-hundred pull-ups, crunches and pushups. She had more upper body strength then he had. After seeing this he was utterly confused - this was not the Hinata he knew. The one he knew was weak and always stuttering. Making his way back to the compound, he debated whether he should bring this to Hiashi's attention. In the end he decided against it, knowing whatever she was doing fate was against her and she would always be weak.

Walking into his compound, he smiled, saying hello to his family on his way home and hoping his mom had cut him some tomatoes.

"Hey sweetheart how was your first day of school?" she asked, setting down a tomato for him, turning to face the stove.

"It was great! I did very well in the physical exam and ninjustu portion," he said, sticking out his chest proudly and taking a huge bite of tomato.

"I'm very proud of you. Did you make any friends?" she asked.

"Yeah, I made two friends: Hinata-chan and Naruto-kun. Hinata is sweet and quiet, while Naruto is loud and obnoxious, but they are both really cool." He finished popping the rest of the tomato in his mouth. To say that Mikoto was surprised would be an understatement. She had never thought her son would be friends with the Hyuuga heiress and the Kyuubi vessel. She was glad he had made friends with Naruto. Her best friend had been Kushina, and anyone unable to see his resemblance to Minato was a fool. They were all fools to treat him the way they did. More than once, she had looked over him when he was sick or hurt, always putting on a transformation jutsu to hide her identity. Just in case. The elders had forbid her and her husband from adopting him into the clan; it had caused quite the riot for a few months.

As Sasuke ran to put his dishes in the sink, the door opened revealing Itachi, still in his ANBU gear.

"Nii-san!" Sasuke yelled running and tackling him in a hug. "Itachi, you promised you would take me kunai throwing," he pouted

"I guess I did.

"I'm ready. Let's go right now so you don't forget again," Sasuke scolded playfully showing off the kunai pouch on his hip.

"Fine, silly little brother. We will be home before dinner time mother."

"Okay have fun you two, don't do anything too dangerous with him Itachi!" she smiled seeing her boys play together even if it was ninja practice.

After training, they headed home with Sasuke on Itachi's back.

"Sasuke, what happened? Why is your ankle all bandaged up?" Mikoto asked, helping him off Itachi's back and onto the kitchen table for her to look at it.

"I rolled my ankle, so Itachi had to carry me home," he chirped.

"You sure sound happy for someone who hurt his ankle," she said.

"I'm just glad I could spend time with my nii-san."

"Well, I'm glad the two of you are getting along," she smiled, setting him off the table.

Walking home, he took the back roads and alleys hoping to skip the daily beating he usually got from the villagers. Even though they were civilians, anyone with a grudge and a bat can do some damage. Going through the last alley until his house, he tripped over someone lying in the middle of the alley.

As he bowed to apologize a fist connected with his stomach. Falling to his hands and knees, holding his stomach, he looked up and saw the man mumbling and staggering around, obviously drunk. As he tried to crawl away, he was kicked hard, and sent tumbling into the brick wall and hitting his head. Everything then went black.

When Naruto woke up, he noticed it was dark. Picking himself up, he analyzed how badly he was beat. His left arm had dry blood on it; trying to stand, he immediately fell back to the ground from dizziness and a splitting headache. He stumbled out of the alley, trying to make it back home. He finally got home only to find his kitchen window shattered.

There was a rock the size of an adult's fist with a note attached to it. He threw it in the trash without reading it, knowing it was just filled with hate. Things like that used to bother him a lot, but he came to accept that this was going to be an everyday thing. That's one reason he wanted to become Hokage - no one bullies the Hokage. Rummaging through his cabinets, Naruto found that he ate the last of his ramen for lunch. He glanced at the clock, and it read 7:34 - too early to sleep, he decided to go to his sanctuary.

The woods. He felt more at home in those woods than anywhere else. Grabbing his black jacket, he jumped out the window towards the Namikaze woods, knowing he would be able to have serenity and find a few wild berry bushes to eat from.

"Thank you for walking me to school Ko."

"My pleasure Hinata-chan," he said, bowing low before walking back to the compound.

While being careful not to trip up the stairs like she had done yesterday, she began to blush a little, remembering her embarrassing clumsiness. Once she entered the classroom, she silently walked to the back of the room, waiting for the other kids to come to class.

Hinata laid her head on her table as she waited, trying to rest. She was fast asleep until someone poked her, waking her abruptly. She immediately had them pinned beneath her and her hands aimed for the person's heart with her Byakugan blazing. Looking at who woke her, she quickly realized who that person was. Leaping away she began apologizing with a bashful expression, "I'm s-so sorry Sasuke-kun! I d-didn't realize it w-was you w-who startled m-me. M-my r-reflexes k-kicked in!" She offered him a hand to help him up.

"Hinata-chan, how did you do that?" he asked while accepting her hand.

She pulled him up and looked at him confused, "D-do what?"

"Make your eyes do that," he specified, pointing to the veins popping on her temples and looking at her eyes carefully.

"It's m-my bloodline," she answered.

"What does it do?"

"It helps with m-my f-family technique and it l-lets me have 360-degree v-vision," she explained, uncomfortable with him being so close since he was looking at her about three inches away.

"W-would you like t-to sit with m-me Sasuke?" she asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Sure I'd love to," he replied, sitting down in the chair beside hers.

As they talked together, they completely ignored their classmates, especially the ones who were staring.

"Hey Hinata, can I sit with you and teme?" Naruto asked with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Sure Naruto-kun. I w-would l-love for you t-to sit with u-us," she said with a small smile.

"Thanks Hina-chan! Why are some of the girls glaring holes at you two?" he asked, making her blush at nickname, as he sat beside her on her other side.

"I d-don't know… all I've d-done is t-talk to Sasuke-kun," she said obliviously.

"That's weird; I think it's your fault teme," he teased, but before Sasuke got the chance to retort, Iruka came in and quieted the class down.

"Good morning class. Today, we are going to do the taijustu portion. You will be put into groups according to the strength and stamina shown in the endurance portion. Group one is the best while group ten is the bottom. The academy does this, hoping the competitiveness will encourage you students to do better. Every week you may challenge a student from a higher group if you win you will be allowed in that group and that student will be moved down a rank." He explained

"Okay Shino Aburame is in group one, Choji Akamichi is in group five…" Iruka kept calling out names along with their assigned group. Once he finished everyone, they all made their way out side.

"I'm g-glad we are in t-the s-same group, a-aren't you guys?" she asked Naruto and Sasuke with a small smile on her face.

"Hn."

"I'm glad we are in the same group Hina-chan! It's going to be fun!" Naruto grinned while swinging his arms behind his head.

"I h-hope I d-don't h-have to f-fight either of y-you," she said with worry.

"It's ok Hinata. Even if one of us does fight you, just do your best and have a good fight," Sasuke encouraged her. She just nodded.

"Okay kids, this is a simple taijustu exercise so there's no ninjutsu allowed. You will spar for three minutes or until someone is unconscious or recedes." After finishing his instructions, Iruka looked down at his clipboard and called out the first fight, "Naruto Uzumaki and Shino Aburame."

"Wish me luck!" Naruto beamed, heading for the ring. Both he and Shino approached the circled and stopped once they were at either end.

"Ok, are both of you boys ready?"

"Hai," they both responded.

"Go!"

Once the fight began, Naruto rushed forward, aiming a foot to Shino's gut. Shino barely jumped back in time to avoid it and was surprised at Naruto's speed, yet wasn't impressed from his rashness.

"One should never rush into a fight," Shino said while continuing to dodge all the sloppy hits as well as throwing some his own for a good portion of the match.

Naruto paid no mind to his words as he kept sending kicks and punches to his opponent that mostly hit their target by a graze, "I'm going to beat you, Shino! You can count on it!"

Shino just sighed and kept avoiding the impulsive boy's attacks. When it looked like Naruto was going to punch directly at his face, though, he disappeared in a flash and appeared behind Naruto, sending a kick to his back.

Naruto staggered forward before doing a flip to balance himself on the ground to face Shino again.

On the other side, Shino stood where he was watching Naruto carefully as they both began to slowly walk around the circle with Naruto watching him just as cautiously. The both of them started to pant as sweat started to drop down their faces from the energy they already used up. Shino, though, appeared the more exhausted out of the two.

"You've got one minute!" Iruka announced.

Naruto smirked, "That was a lucky counterattack! I won't let it happen again though!"

"We'll see about that," Shino stated doubting him, yet he was being a hypocrite since he didn't know how much longer he could keep going.

After what seemed like forever, the two charged forward and sent more attacks against each other while flashing in and around. Shino was slowing down, accidentally allowing Naruto to have the upper hand and felt him land several punches to his stomach and chest.

"Time! That's enough, you two!" Hearing that they were done, the both of them stopped and tried to catch their breaths.

Even though the match was a tie, Naruto seemed to have more damage.

"Good job both of you. Naruto, you need to work on your precision and Shino, you need to work on your endurance," the young chunnin said, surprising Naruto at his kindness towards him. The blonde ninja then made his way back to Hinata and Sasuke with his eyes down cast at not winning.

"G-good job Naruto-kun," Hinata whispered with comfort.

"Yeah right, he pummeled me," he muttered back.

"We can train together if you want," she offered.

"I'd love that Hina-chan!" Naruto said immediately, brightening up as they watched the end of a fight.

"Hinata Hyuga and Kaiya Kengou to the ring," the teacher called.

"Good luck Hinata," Sasuke said.

"Yeah, beat her tail!" Naruto encouraged.

"Thanks," she said before she stood up and walked towards the ring.

"Are you ready?" the teacher asked.

"Hai," both girls confirmed.

"Go!" he ordered as everyone watched them begin their match.

Kaiya started the fight with a round house kick, which Hinata dodged easily before jumping back a good amount.

Hinata then tried to throw some punches at her opponent with a few successes, yet they did little damage.

Hinata continued to dodge showing her amazing flexibility as Kaiya kept attacking. She avoid all the hits and kicks sent her way. Many of the girls and some of the boys were amazed at the flexibility shown by the petite girl.

"A minute and a half left!"

Growling Kaiya threw more force and aggression into her barrage of hits and punches, trying to make a direct hit or two at her opponent who kept swiftly evading her attacks each time. She even tried to flash behind Hinata, but that didn't work on her either.

Hinata hadn't even broken a sweat yet, only letting out short pants as she stayed focused on tiring her attacker out.

Kaiya soon began to get infuriated from being bested..

"Stay still you little brat!" She threw a forceful punch, but Hinata got out of the way once again, causing Kaiya to hit air instead. This left an opening for Hinata to attack, which easily she took.

"I'm s-sorry but I need to win!" Hinata replied before sliding under Kaiya striking her stomach causing her to fall forward faster than she already was. Rolling out as to not gain a concussion she was forced outside the boundaries.

"Winner is Hinata Hyuga!" the teacher called out while scribbling on his clipboard. Kaiya was helped to her feet by her friends as Hinata walked over to her friends.

"That was amazing Hinata! You were so graceful, it was beautiful! Dattabayo!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Thanks," she mumbled meekly, a blush rising from his small praise.

"Yeah, good job Hinata," Sasuke congratulated as he ruffled her short hair making her blush a deeper shade of red than she already was.

"Next, Sasuke Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka," the instructor called out.


	3. Freighting

"Good luck Teme/Sasuke," Naruto and Hinata said at the same time as Sasuke stood up and headed towards the ring.

"You boys ready? The chunnin asked.

"Hai," they responded.

"Go!" the instructor yelled before jumping out of the way.

Both Kiba and Sasuke charged and sent a series of attacks against the other. Sasuke's style was fast and flowed together smoothly, while Kiba's was rough and feral. Both styles were effective ninja techniques.

Kiba tried to slash Sasuke across the chest, but Sasuke would use his agility and flexibliy to evade almost taunting Kiba by the way he made it look so easy.

After finding an opening, Sasuke landed a spinning kick against Kiba's torso, sending him flying back, but he was able to maneuver himself so he could flipped and landed on the ground.

Kiba raced towards Sasuke on all fours, Sasuke easily dodged before landing a kick on his opponent's back. Kiba was forcefully pushed onto the ground with his face planted onto the dirt.

He spat out the soil in his mouth and growled. Lifting himself back up, he raced towards Sasuke again.

Sasuke waited for him to be at the right place at the right moment and once he was there, he simply side stepped quickly avoiding his attacker and performed a powerful roundhouse kick to Kiba's back. That threw him out of the ring and into a tree not too far away.

The instructor went over to check on him and called out, "Knock out! Sasuke Uchiha wins!"

"G-good job Sasuke-kun," Hinata congratulated.

"Yeah, you fight like a pretty pink ballerina, jumping and sliding around" Naruto teased.

"Thanks Hina-chan and no thanks Dobe," he said, whacking Naruto on the back of his head.

"Teme," Naruto huffed childishly.

Sasuke was very confused by his two new friends since it seemed like they both had two different personalities – Naruto would act like a dobe sometimes and at others, he had the attitude of a ninja. Hinata, on the other hand, was shy and stuttered at times and at others, she would be serious and confident like in her fight with Kaiya.

He thought it was very odd but would keep his two oddballs all the same. The instructor pulled him out of his thoughts saying,

"Okay, lastly, I need Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga to the ring. I didn't get enough time to evaluate you. Will you spar again please?" the instructor asked.

"Hai sensei," both students replied as they walked towards the ring.

"Let's have a good fight okay Hinata?"

"Hai Sasuke."

"Both are ready?" the teacher asked.

"Hai."

"Go!"

Hinata and Sasuke both rushed towards each other at the same time. When they finally met, they traded blows, but nothing ever made contact.

Sasuke sent a kick aimed for Hinata's shoulderthat she swiftly dodged. Hinata swept low to kick his feet out from under him, but he'd jump and avoid it just in time. They were synched in a beautiful, yet deadly dance – both were equal, the win would go to the person with the greatest stamina.

After the time was almost up both were breathing hard and Sasuke's movements were slightly slowing, but it was not noticeable to the untrained eye. Good thing Hinata was one of the few who had trained eyes.

She purposely threw her fist too hard making her seem open. Sasuke seeing this quickly went for the finishing blow. As he sent a foot to her back Hinata grabbed it and flipped him over her shoulder showing much strength from such a petite girl.

"T-this is o-over," she said having pinned him to the ground. His arms behind his back, his stomach digging into the rocks in the ring.

"Don't underestimate me," he breathed out with his face in the dirt.

"I'm n-not underestimating y-you; from here I can t-touch the p-pressure point in your n-neck making y-you unconscious leaving y-you unable to f-fight," she explained as sat atop his back one hand holding his hands to his back and the other poised to strike his neck. "I'm a-allowing you a c-chance to b-bow out w-with g-grace."

"I'm not going to lose so easy," he said, struggling under her grip. He didn't want to be bested by such a cute and small girl.

"This is your own fault then," she said hitting his neck making him go unconscious, ending the fight.

Sasuke sat up he noticed he was not in his room at home where he usually woke up in.

"Where am I?" he asked to no one in particular rubbing his eyes.

"You're in the nurse's office. Boy did you have your ass handed to you… and by a girl no less," Naruto snorted, pushing himself from the wall he had been leaning against.

"What are you taking about dobe?" Sasuke said exasperated by the tone Naruto was talking to him in.

"Hinata and you fought. Both of you guys were pretty much even till she pinned and knocked you out," he explained pumping his fist at the end with a huge grin.

"Where is Hinata?" Sasuke asked looking around; figuring her sweet nature would have her stay till he woke up.

"The bell rang a few minutes ago. She went to go get her bag and knowing her she'll grab yours too."

"All right, but _why_ are you here?" Sasuke questioned, knowing Hinata stayed because she was the one who put him in this state.

"Because I'm your and Hinata's friend teme," he answered, flicking Sasuke's forehead.

"Why do you act like that?" Sasuke quipped, sitting up quickly from the cot.

Cocking an eyebrow, Naruto watched him for a few seconds before answering innocently with a hint of carefulness, "Act like what?"

"Well, when you're around other kids or people you act like a total idiot and goof, but when you're around only me, and sometimes Hinata, you act all cool, collected and smooth. What? Do you, like, have two personalities like the Harunos or something?" Why did the people he could actually stand have to be so strange?

To this question, Naruto laughed aloud, "I'm no Haruno and I don't have two personalities, but I have been through crap that would make your worst nightmares hide under the bed. I'm sure Hinata has been through her share of bad things too, knowing her dad."

He growled, confused by everything Naruto had just said "What do you mean?"

"Let's just say that the jokester everyone knows is exactly who I want to them to think I am. I have a very small list of people who I think can accept who I am. Right now, the only people on that list are the Hokage, Ayame, Hinata and you. If this is too much for you I can erase your name off that list and you'll never see this me again," he said this while staring out the window sourly.

"Why?"

"That's my business. Now do you want to be on that list or not?" he hissed. This conversation was harder then he thought it would be – it brought up painful thoughts and memories.

"I want to stay as your friend," Sasuke answered more confidently than he actually was feeling.

"Good choice, teme," he smirked as Hinata came through the door.

"Sasuke I'm g-glad you're awake. S-sorry about the s-spar, you t-told me t-to do m-my best s-so I didn't hold b-back," she apologized with a giggle, handing him his bag.

"Thanks for waiting and bringing my pack, Hinata," he said as he swung his legs around and pushed himself off the cot.

"Well? Are you two ready for that training we agreed on?" Naruto asked with a cheesy grin.

"Yep," both of his companions replied.

^*^*^ 3 Months Later ^*^*^

After another boring day of lectures Naruto was just itching to go with his two best friends and train. The bell rung and he was out of his seat in a flash pulling his friends behind him out the door.

"Your feet are too far apart; if they are close together it gives you better stability and makes your movements swifter," she said, taking his feet and moving them.

"Thanks Hinata. You're a great teacher," Naruto said, tossing her a genuine grin.

"Y-your welcome, Naruto. Let's g-go through your k-kata's once more, then w-we'll go check on Sasuke," she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

She then carefully watched every move he made to see if each was in place, "That was almost perfect Naruto, great job!" she hugged him without a thought to show how proud she was then blushed cherry red at her actions.

Afterwards, they both began to make their way to the weapons clearing to see how Sasuke was doing. They found him doing complicated routine of flips and jumps all the while tossing kunai and shuriken at targets. As he came to a stop, he crouched down panting.

"That was amazing, Sasuke," Hinata said in awe, seeing he had hit all the targets without missing any.

"Not as good as my brother though. He hits them all dead center," he grumbled, yanking the weapons out of the targets.

"Well then, don't compare yourself to him, compare yourself to me. I can't even hit all the targets," Naruto shrugged as though it was obvious.

"What?"

"You heard me. Don't place yourself in his shadow. Be your own person or else you'll never improve if you are focused on him," Naruto wisely said.

"Let's h-head home n-now, guys. It's getting d-dark and we must have lost track of t-time," Hinata suggested.

They all grabbed their packs and began to walk home together.

This became a tradition for the three – they would go and train together. Hinata helped Naruto form a taijustu style since he didn't have a clan style and the academy style was usually ineffective. He was getting to the level they were at his ability to learn and create moves surprised them both. They spent the most of two months together forming a strong bond between all of them, helping each other with their weaknesses and strengths.

Slowly, Naruto was himself around them during training full time though they never pushed him to tell them why he put up the façade in the first place.

They went to drop Sasuke off at home first as they always did, since he lived two minutes from their training grounds. Once they got there, they began to say goodbye until Hinata saw a glimpse of liquid red coming from the compound.

"Sasuke, look," she said, pointing to blood behind him.

Turning around, he saw his cousin on the ground… dead. Looking further he saw his aunts, uncles, and cousins were all lying in their own pools of blood. Lying slaughtered in the roads and near the houses, blood splattered on the ground and windows.

Hurriedly, Sasuke ran to each of them to see if they were alive with Hinata and Naruto doing the same.

In the end, not one of them found any survivors.

Sasuke, realizing his parents and brother could be dead, he ran home with Hinata and Naruto following close behind.

Bursting through his kitchen door, he frantically looked around before running up the stairs, blocking out the cries from his friends who were telling him to stop.

He found his parents both on the ground a large pool of blood beneath them. He collapsed onto his mom, sobbing.

Hinata slid next to him, checking for any signs of life in either of his parent. She felt for his father's pulse and found nothing, but when she placed her fingers on Mikoto's neck, she felt the weak pulse.

"Sasuke, your mom's still alive!" Hinata announced as she had Naruto help her turn Mikoto on her back so she could see the damage. She began to dig through her bag retrieving her medical kit that she never left home without.

Quickly and efficiently, she began wrapping the injured woman's head and sides where most of the bleeding came from.

On the bandages, she generously slathered some herbal healing cream that she created based on her mother's teachings.

Finally, she used her limited medical ninjustu Ko had taught her. This closed the head wound, slices on her arms and a nasty gash on her thigh. When she was done, she turned to put her supplies back and saw someone in the shadows. Quickly, she pulled Sasuke towards her and Naruto.

"Looks like Sasuke got himself some friends," Itachi said with a blank gaze as he stepped into the moonlight.

"Itachi! Look what happened to mom and dad!" Sasuke cried out.

"I know what happened to them, I was the one who did this."

"What? W-why?" Sasuke asked, tears pouring down his cheeks from seeing his dad dead and his mom's near-death condition.

"I needed something to evaluate my abilities," he said with his eyes swirling. But instead of his new jutsu hitting Sasuke, Naruto pushed Sasuke out of the way and took the hit instead.

Opening his eyes, Naruto found himself in the sewers of his mindscape on a cross.

"You're a lucky kid. You just stepped into 72 hours of torture."

"What can be worse than what I've already lived through?" Naruto spat back from his place higher than Itachi. Naruto began to grin as a fox began to rise from a puddle behind Itachi.

"Looks like you won't get to have your fun. Hey Kyu, want to help me down?" Naruto smirked.

"Of course Naruto," the fox purred from behind the eldest Uchiha brother using her nine tails to slice the cross into bits, leaving him to fall only to catch him in one of her fluffy tails.

"Impossible. You can't do that. Only I can control this space," Itachi said, almost spluttering at his greatest weapon being defeated by a mere academy.

"Yes, you are correct this would be your space to control IF the person you were controlling had only one mind, but Naruto has two minds in his head," the fox said while circling the Uchiha, acting like a predator around prey.

"Now I control this space," she spoke into his ear before snapping one of her tails. Doing so made thick chains spring out from nowhere and wrap themselves around Itachi's hands and ankles, making him look like a big X.

"Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way? You can either swear not to lay a finger on Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke when you leave this dimension _or _you can go through torture for the rest of our time here. Your choice," Kyu said, still circling the Uchiha.

Itachi just stared blankly at the nine tailed fox, not even responding.

"Well, it's your funeral then. You've made Naruto very angry by threatening his friends' lives and I've seen the hell he's gone through. These people accept him and no one will take them away from him," Kyu said, her eyes growing red. Her tail became as sharp as a blade and ran through Itachi's side, ripping a scream from him.

"How can you hurt me? I created this realm," he said in confusion before coughing up his own blood.

"It's cute how you think nothing can overpower you. Well, let me be the first to tell you there are things in this world that you will never be able to be stronger than. I am one of those things. To me, you are like a bug underneath my paw," she explained before making a slice across his torso. By the end of the 72 hours, Itachi had a crippling fear of what resided inside of Naruto.

After a few seconds in the real world, Itachi ripped his gaze from Naruto.

"Get away from me, you demon," Itachi said, backing away from the small boy.

"Didn't you have fun being with Kyu?" he smirked, ambling closer towards Itachi.

"You're a freak and she is the devil!" Itachi said, scrambling from the blonde. Kyu, being a thousand year old being, used torture methods that even the cruellest of enemies wouldn't think of using, including Itachi himself.

"You will stay away from my family and not touch them or I will personally make sure you meet with Kyu again. And, believe it or not, she can be way more vicious than she showed today," Naruto warned, making Itachi's eyes widen in fear before he leapt out of the window.

"Naruto, what d-did you do to him?" Hinata asked, trembling from the encounter with the murderer.

"He entered my mindscape and I showed him some of the things I've lived through," Naruto clarified. Both his friends looked towards the blonde, wondering what could have scared the murderer of a whole ninja clan enough to make him flee.

"We need to stop focusing on me and get your mom to the hospital and quick," Naruto insisted while keeping a blank face on, not wanting his friends to know about what resided within him just yet.

"You're right. We need to get her to the hospital since I only fixed up her outer wounds," Hinata agreed.

The three children began to lift Mikoto and carry her to the hospital, but before they were even out of the compound, an ANBU appeared in front of them.

"What happened here? I felt a chakra pulse and came to check it out," the ANBU said, eyeing Naruto since the chakra he had felt was the Kyuubi's.

"The Uchiha clan was massacred with the exception of Mikoto and Sasuke by Itachi Uchiha," Naruto answered.

"Mikoto needs medical attention immediately!" Hinata cut in, feeling the heartbeats get weaker with every passing second.

"Give her to me then. I can take her to the hospital faster than you three can," the silver haired ANBU offered, still processing the information he had just been given by the children. He settled the unconscious women in a bridal position before taking to the rooftops.

The three kids watched him fade into the night and disappear from their sights.

"Sasuke. Hinata. I know a short cut to the hospital that we can take," Naruto said before running the same way the silver haired ANBU had leapt off to with his friends following him.


	4. Kyu?

After twenty minutes, all three of them were at the hospital completely out of breath, though Sasuke was the first to make it to the receptionist.

"How may I help you kiddos?" the young receptionist asked sweetly.

"Where is Mikoto Uchiha? She's my momma! An ANBU with silver hair brought her in," Sasuke said quickly while leaning heavily on the white desk, breathing hard from having just gone at top speed for twenty minutes. After typing for a few seconds, she found the file on her computer.

"She was entered into the emergency room about fifteen minutes ago and is being prepped for surgery as we speak. She should be out in an hour to an hour and a half at most. Until then, you can go to the waiting room for the second floor," she answered with a smile pointing a manicured finger towards the stairwell.

"Thank you miss," Hinata said as she watched Sasuke and Naruto race to the stairs. She was almost completely exhausted from using up so much energy to heal Mikoto and ran about three miles on high speed right after, but she knew that Sasuke needed all of his friends tonight.

And so, with determination, she began to go up the flight of stairs – the only thing keeping her awake was pure will power.

She slowly began to trudge up the stairs to get to her boys, 'What? Her boys? Where had that thought come from?' she thought before shaking her head, discarding the thought for another moment,

Getting to the top of the stairs she saw the waiting room. It was small, having only about ten chairs and a loveseat in it. She saw that Sasuke had already sat down on the couch while Naruto was sitting in the chair across from it.

She stepped quietly and sat down beside Sasuke since all the other chairs were occupied.

After about an hour or so, Hinata's eyes started to droop. It was around eleven by then. Soon after, her head lolled over to Sasuke's shoulder and she softly snored.

Hearing her shallow breathing, Sasuke let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. He wasn't used to being so close to any girl other than his mom so this was kind of a new thing for him.

He looked over at the clock and saw that it was almost eleven-twenty. He couldn't believe how much time had passed. To think, only three hours ago he was happily training with the two people with him right now.

Sasuke looked over to Naruto to find him with his elbows resting on his knees, fingers interlocked and his chin placed on top of his hands.

"Sasuke, it's almost thirty minutes until midnight, and I'm sure that Hiashi is already going ballistic to see her not back yet. I'm going to take her home then head on to my own," he announced, beginning to get up and stretch.

Naruto headed towards to the couch his friends were sitting on and had Sasuke help him place Hinata onto his back.

"We'll visit in the morning," he said with a small smile before walking out of the waiting room, leaving Sasuke alone.

After another half hour Sasuke started to nod off, sinking into the fluffy couch until the intercom went off, calling him to room 184. He hopped up and rushed to go see his mom.

After two or three minutes of searching, he found her room and saw a nurse standing by the door with a clipboard doing paperwork.

"Hello. What's your name sweetie?" she asked, kneeling down to his level.

"Sasuke Uchiha. I was called to this room since it's my mom's," he said, crossing his arms defiantly. Inside though, all he really wanted to see his momma.

"Okay, you can go in and see her. She is still under anesthesia and won't wake up for another hour or so," the nurse explained with a smile, seeing the boy's cute antics.

He walked into the room and made a beeline for his mom, rushing to the side of her bed. He grabbed her hand and rested his head on her chest, feeling comfort from her steady pulse.

After five minutes, a doctor came in, causing Sasuke to lift his head to see what he was doing.

"Well hello there. Didn't expect someone to be here so quick," he said with a soft smile, pushing his glassed up onto the bridge of his nose. He then picked up the clipboard that the nurse had left on the bedside table.

"You are very lucky that she's still alive. We actually almost lost her a few times in the operation. We noticed that someone gave her basic healing when she came in and I think that's what kept her alive till we started the operation. She owes that person her life," he said, finishing whatever he was writing on the clipboard with a click of his pen.

Sasuke's eyes widened since he knew exactly who had healed his mom and she had been sleeping on him less than an hour ago. He watched as the doctor walked out the door, leaving him alone with his mom.

He placed his head back on to her chest after climbing in the bed next to her. He fell asleep as soon as he was settled down.

'_Made it!' _Naruto thought as he walked to the Hyuuga gates, Hinata still sound asleep on his back, snoring softly. He walked up to the gate and whistled the tune he had seen Hinata do many times. The gate glowed a pale white before opening to show Hiashi Hyuuga, Naruto closed his eyes. The only person he had wanted to avoid was before him, rage in his eyes and a sneer on his lips.

"What have you done to her?" he questioned harshly taking quick strides over to him lifting the sleeping girl from Naruto's back.

"I was bringing her home; she fell asleep at the hospital."

"Why was she at the hospital?" he spat out, venom dripping from his words. He held the girl at arm's length as though she had a disease.

"We were walking Sasuke home and found his family slain by his brother, Itachi. We found his mother half alive so Hinata healed her before an ANBU found us and took her to the hospital. We ran to the hospital and waited with Sasuke until midnight when I decided to take Hinata home since she was already asleep," he answered calmly to the vivid adult trying to hold his temper and his tongue.

"Lying demon!" Hiashi replied, slapping Naruto across the face sending him flying a few feet. With all the noise and movement Hinata woke up, she opened her eyes sleepily and found Naruto in the dirt, a red handprint on his face. She struggled out of her father's arms looking at him with contempt. She rushed over to him to help him stand and brushed off his pants and shirt for him.

"Why did you do that father? He is my friend he took me home, what did he do to you?" she spoke loudly without a single stutter, surprising Hiashi.

"Get away from that demon this instant! Who knows what he could do to you, sounds like he has already began poisoning your brain."

"No," she called back, standing her ground, using the confidence her friends had help her build over the last few months to stand up to the terror that was her father.

"Hinata if you do not obey me you shall be dismissed from the clan," he growled back.

"I will not abandon my friend, he cares about me; I will not let you harm him," she spoke, standing in front of Naruto to protect him if she needed to.

"Fine, what do I care, you were always weak and pathetic anyway," he said coldly, walking back to the compound.

"You shall never be accepted by the Hyuuga, I will make sure of that," he spat out coldly, watching the corners of her lips tremble before closing the pristine white gates behind him.

"Wow, Hinata-chan, you were amazing!" Naruto praised as the girl slid into his arms, her wobbly legs not able to support her without the adrenaline.

"Thank you Naruto-kun, but where will I go? I have no home or family." She said, her tears softly pricking the corners of her eyes.

"You can stay at my house and we can be a family. You will be my sister, Sasuke will be our brother and Mikoto will be our Mom," he answered simply smiling down at her sweetly, as if it were the easiest and obvious solution.

"O-Okay N-Naruto-kun," she answered, her stutter returning full force. They both began walking to his apartment, Naruto leading the way. Neither Hinata nor Sasuke had been to his house, he made sure of that because he never knew what condition it would be in when he returned. It was vandalized once or twice every week, the next day it was good as new. He had never seen the people who fixed it but he was almost certain that it was the work of ninjas that jiji sent.

When they got home, he let out a sigh of relief, there was no vandalism. _'Thank kami,' _he thought. Unlocking his door, he let her in; she was surprised at how clean it was. There was a trash can overflowing with ramen cups but that was about it, the small one room apartment was fairly clean for a boy. She walked in and took off her shoes and shivered, it was cold in there, as cold as outside. She was used to the warmth of the walls and floors of the Hyuuga mansion.

"Here you go Hinata, you can take my bed and I'll make a pallet on the floor," He offered.

"N-No, I can't t-take your b-bed away from you, I will s-sleep on the f-floor," she declined.

"No, really, it's okay," he said pulling a sheet from his closet and lying it on the ground before retrieving his extra pillow and lying that atop the sheet.

"Won't y-you be c-cold?" she asked.

"No, I'll be fine," he said rubbing the back of his head.

"O-Okay Naruto," she said doubtfully. After ten minutes of lying on his bed under the drafty blankets, Hinata began to notice Naruto's teeth chattering as he slept. She carefully slid out of the hard bed and onto the floor next to him; she covered herself and him with the blanket, snuggling close to his warmth. Soon his teeth stopped chattering and she gave a small smile to herself before falling asleep to next to the warm blonde.

After he dropped Mikoto off at the hospital, he shot off like an arrow to the Hokage's tower to tell the third what he witnessed and heard about tonight. He jumped through the open window and stood with an air of confidence in front of the hokage.

"Lord Hokage, I have distressing news," he said, removing his ANBU mask only to reveal another mask. This one, though, only covered the lower half of his face.

"What's happened, Kakashi?" The elder of the two inquired, thankful for a distraction from his mountain of paperwork.

"The Uchiha clan was massacred about forty minutes ago by Itachi Uchiha," he reported, showing no emotion for the only Uchiha he ever cared for was long dead.

"Are there any survivors other than Itachi?" he asked after he overcame the shock.

"Mikoto Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha are the only survivors that I know of though since I found three children carrying an injured Mikoto. I took her to the hospital then came directly here," he answered.

"How did you come to find this? It's almost ten and you live on the other side of town?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I was filling in for Gemna since he has the flu and I was on my way back from guard duty when I felt the Kyuubi's chakra. I feared the seal had broken so I went in the direction the pulse came from, and found myself at the Uchiha compound. It was there that I saw the Hyuga heiress, Naruto and Sasuke carrying Mikoto to take her to the hospital."

"Well, alert the ANBU immediately. Go to the headquarters and inform all the captains to gather their teammates and head to the Uchiha compound immediately to check for anyone alive. Bring the bodies in for autopsy just to confirm what you've already told me," he ordered while walking from behind his desk.

"Hai," he complied, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Hika, send a speed ninja to inform the Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyuga clan heads that they need to be told to come to my office immediately," he told his secretary before lighting his pipe muttering, "This is going to be a long and hard night." He then disappeared in a puff of smoke in the same fashion the silver haired ANB did only minutes before.

Walking around, Sarutobi saw blood splattered on almost every surface. He hadn't seen this much blood and death since the last great ninja war.

He watched as ANBU ran around trying to make sure they took every precaution tape around each body. The bodies were carefully sealed into individual scrolls so that they would be delivered to the autopsy team in the morning.

One of the top captains came up to Sarutobi to inform him of the status of the situation, "We have a third of the bodies sealed and it should be another two and a half hours before we finish. We also have double-checked and found no others alive with the exception of Sasuke and Mikoto. I have three ANBU watching them at the moment as well as a precaution in case whoever did this comes back to finish the job."

"Thank you leopard. I request that you send an ANBU to watch over Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki for the night as well. Both of them witnessed the last part of the Massacre."

"Consider it done sir," she replied before rushing back into the havoc to deliver new orders to her comrades.

As he continued to walk through the compound, Sarutobi glanced at the police headquarters stationed there. It was then that he realized more than two thirds of his police forces were dead. He would have to find a jonin to head that depart tomorrow, along with finding three jonin to be the guardians of the three kids who witnessed the massacre themselves.

He groaned, knowing no shinobi in their right mind liked to stay in Konoha having guard duty. The choice would be extremely difficult for all four now open positions. He checked with the ANBU captain over and telling him to finish the job before he disappeared in a swirl of wind and reappearing in his office.

"Hika, I need you to send me the files of every jonin in this village," the hokage requested, taking a sip from the drink of life, or as most would call it: coffee. After a few minutes of rummaging she gathered about fifty or sixty files in her slender arms.

Sighing, he began to rub his temples and watched in sorrow as she brought a pile of files about the same size as the first and plopped them onto his desk as well. There were about 100 to 120 files that he had to look through, leading him to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be as easy as he had expected.

'Man, this is really going to be a hard decision,' he thought as he picked up the first one.


	5. Stolen

The sun began shining through the cracks of the blinds, lighting up the room. A nurse soon scurried in to check on her patient and found a little boy curled up beside her, sucking his thumb. She smiled at his cuteness as she gently lifted the boy from the bed and laid him onto a cushy chair in the corner; so she could do her checkup.

She made sure that all the monitors were hooked up correctly, refilled the IV bag, and checked her blood pressure, smoothing out the bed spread she smiled at the snoring little boy as she closed the door behind herself, hanging up the checkup board near it.

After another half hour, Sasuke began to stir. Yawning and stretching from his chair, Sasuke slowly opened his ebony eyes and quickly became confused, being in a strange unknown room, his eyestravelled across the surroundings and he quickly realized exactly where he was and why he was there. He quickly scrambled out of the chair and went to his mom's bedside; he watched her gentle breathing and relaxed a bit.

His stomach then made an announcement to the room, growling in hunger, rubbing his stomach and remembering that he hadn't eaten meal since the day before. Looking towards the door and back to his mom and then back to the door, he slowly went to open the door. Tentatively, he poked his head out looking for a nurse or doctor to give him directions to find some food. He soon saw a doctor heading towards it. Stepping out of the room, he went up to her, tugging on her lab coat.

"Ma'am, where can I get some food?" He asked politely, knowing that this lady could've possibly helped heal his mom.

"We have a cafeteria on the floor below this, I'll take you there," She said gently, taking his hand and leading him down the hall that she had just come from. They went downstairs and crossed a few hallways before reaching a pair of white double doors.

"Thank you ma'am," Sasuke said.

Pushing open the doors, Sasuke found a breakfast bar. Taking long strides towards it, he picked up a round cream plate and filled it with eggs, bacon and tomatoes. Sitting down, he stuffed the tomatoes in his mouth like a starved dog before even touching his eggs and bacon. He finished his food and then went back to the room, where he quietly opened and shut the door, crawling back in the bed with his mom.

Her heartbeat reassured him that she was still here and alive, it was at this moment that he realized everything, that he had lost his father, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even though he felt horrible about it, he was especially sad that he lost his brother.

He thought his brother cared about him, last week they even trained together, practising throwing kunai. They laughed and played at home after that. What had happened?

He cried for a half hour before he was all dried up, and fell into a restless slumber, snuggling into his mother's warmth and comforting presence.

'So warm', Hinata thought snuggling close to the source of the warmth, wrapping her arms around the warm, warm pillow. Then the pillow started squirming, that was what confused her. Popping her lilac eyes open, her sight was filled with a bright shade of orange and suddenly like a slap to the face; she remembered what she had done earlier that night.

"Epp!" She squealed before falling backwards away from him, her cheeks as red as tomatoes. She waited for him to yell at her, for him to say that she was in big trouble and that she wasn't allowed to stay with him anymore. Scrunching up like ball she shivered in wait for the yelling until she realized he wasn't going to yell.

Opening one eye, she looked over at Naruto and saw him sleeping like a baby sucking his thumb. She giggled quietly before getting up and dusting off her wrinkled clothes, she then began to make the bed that she was supposed to sleep in the night before.

The rest of his house, she realized, was very small but it was homely and comforting, nothing like the cold Hyuuga compound. It was one room, with the exception of a bathroom, the futon that she had been supposed to sleep on was in the back left corner, five paces right and you were in front of the a missing part of the wall filled with a washer and dryer, two more paces and you were in front of the bathroom door.

The front right corner had a stove, fridge, microwave, a small four person table and three chairs. The front left corner had a small television and a bookcase next to a set of drawers she was sure was filled with the rest of Naruto's clothes. His house was smaller than her bedroom in her old home, making her feel quite spoiled.

Peering into the old fridge, she looked for food to make for breakfast. She found spoiled milk, a package of seaweed, a broken egg, a half full carton of orange juice, mouldy cheese, a jar of pickled plums and a bottle of water. Throwing away the milk, egg and cheese, and pulling out the seaweed and pickled plums; she went searching through the cabinets and successfully found a new bag of rice, an old out of use rice maker, salt, sesame seeds and soy sauce.

After washing the rice, she put the rice in the rice cooker; she knew she would have to wait at least thirty minutes for the rice to cook. She wondered into the bathroom to freshen up, sniffing her shirt she realized how gross she smelled, not having had a chance to shower since the afternoon of hard training with Sasuke and Naruto.

Moving out of the bathroom, she tip toed around Naruto and near his drawers. Blushing, she opened the first one and found it full of t-shirts; she grabbed the one on top. Going down a drawer, she opened it and quickly snapped it shut after she saw a peek of what was in there. Opening the last drawer, she found a pair of small orange shorts. Rushing around Naruto, she scurried into the bathroom, a blush gracing her pale cheeks.

Turning the warm water on in the shower, she began to undress, after she was finished she stepped into the shower. Using the shampoo Naruto had and his body wash, Hinata washed her skin. Soon, she began singing softly as she always did in the shower.

Finishing her song she turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. She grabbed a towel that was hanging up and began drying off, humming the song of her favorite anime in her head. She dressed and had her hair wrapped up in the towel, she opened the door and came nose to nose with agaping Naruto. All the blood rushed to her face and she squeaked for the second time that morning steeping back and slammed the door in his face.

'Dumb sun!' he growled, pulling the blanket over his blonde head to block the ray of light his blinds had let in. He then realized his shower was running, leaping from his cover and falling back onto the floor in a heap from the tangled mess his sheets had become. Quickly untangling himself from the mess, he raced over to the door of his bathroom, and heard beautiful singing.

His eyebrow went up wondering why someone would come to his house to sing in the shower. Looking around he saw his rice cooker doing its job on the counter then over to the folded sheets on his bed. He smacked himself for not remembering that Hinata had stayed the night. He listened to the singing for a minute and soon his mouth was hanging wide open at how beautiful it sounded.

Soon, the shower was turned off, and not even a minute later, Hinata came out in his shorts and t-shirt. They bumped noses and her face turned beet red, confusing him for a second. He looked at her for a few seconds and watched as she stepped back and slammed the door almost hitting his nose in the process.

Walking over to the rice cooker he found it was almost done. Opening it, he finished the preparations Hinata had made before going to the shower. Grinning over at the door he shook his head in good natured confusion, as he went to the door to tell her breakfast was ready.

"Hinata I finished the rice balls, you can come out now" he said standing a few feet from the door as not be face to face with Hinata again when she opened the door. The door slowly opened revealing a flushed Hinata hair slightly disheveled from lack of a brush.

"Okay" she said quietly slipping from the bathroom and awkwardly going to sit on one of Naruto's chairs. After finishing their silent meal Naruto had an idea hoping to break the silence.

"Let's go visit Sasuke and his mom! Check up on them" he suggested with a grin.

"T-that sounds good t-to me" she answered with a small but precious smile. The two washed their dishes in the sink before leaving and heading towards the hospital. Completely unaware of theANBU following their every step.

He felt his shoulder being shaken; and made his eyelids flutter so he could see but his sight was filled with a white lab coat.

"Sweetheart, how are feeling?" she asked helping him off the bed and onto his feet.

"I'm okay" he answered rubbing his sore eyes, "We have the results of your mom's evaluation."

"Really?" What do they say?" He asked eagerly ready to have even the tiniest bit of stability in his life that had been turned upside down.

""She's going to stay in the hospital for the next week and hopefully wake sometime during that next few days." She answered with a smile enjoying being bearer of good news.

"Thank you so much for saving my mom, I don't know what I'd do without her" he answered bowing very low to show his appreciation.

"It's my job as a medic-nin to heal and help people keeping as many alive as possible. You're training to be a shinobi right?"

"Of course! I'm going to be strong enough to protect my mom and friends." He said confidently.

"Well did you know that a medic–nin usually needs to be one of the strongest members on the team? It's because they have to be able to stay alive and heal their comrades." Sasuke got a perplexed look on his face, he'd never thought of it like that.

"Anyways I'll need to escort you out of the room visiting hours are over, they are eight to eleven in the morning and five to eight at night you can come back at five." She said gently taking his hand and leading him out the door. He looked longingly over his shoulder slipping out of her grasp to give his mom a kiss on the cheek, before he returned to the medic and let her lead him to the lobby.

Once she left him he decided to go to the library and look more information on healing and being a medic-nin. He was completely oblivious to the ANBU following him on the rooftops.

"I need you to bring the children to me as soon as possible" he spoke into a head set hat was connected to the ANBU currently following the three children. To be honest Sarutobi was exhausted after spending the last six hours going through mountains of paper work to find the kids respective jonin to make sure Itachi didn't come back to finish the job and find a jonin capable of reconstructing the police squad. Within minutes the three jonin and children were present and accounted for in front of him.

"Jiji why are we here?" Naruto asked impatiently confused on why they were forcible shusined away in the middle of the search for his friend.

"I was wondering the same thing Hokage-sama" one of the jonin called out having as short of patience as the blond.

"These will be your charges for the next few years or at least until they graduate from the academy. Due to their entanglement with the Uchiha massacre the counsel decided to have a jonin watch over them until graduation. After which you will be realized from the contract."

The three children's jaws went slack from that explanation never even thinking Itachi would target them.

"What about our other missions we will be needed for?" one asked

"If you are essential to the team the children will be watched over by an ANBU or a fellow jonin. Now for some introductions, Naruto this is Kakashi he will be your sensei and protector if needed. Hinata meet Kurenai, and Sasuke this is Anko she will watch over you as well as rebuild the Kohona police force with the aid of your mother when she wakes." He watched as all the children shook hands with their respective adult.

"Now each of you go and get acquainted you will be spending quite a lot of time with each other so better learn to like each other." He smiled as Hinata was taken by the hand, and frowned as Kakashi pulled out his green book walking away expecting the blond to trot after him which he did and looked around for the last pair and realized Anko must have shusined out with her charge. He sighed and hoped this would work.

"Okay shrimp, tell me about yourself and I'll pretend to listen" Anko said roughly lying down as she waited for her skewers of dango from her favorite stand.

"What do you want to know?" he asked not approving of her scantily clad outfit and the odd aura she gave off.

"Name, likes, dislikes, dreams that kind of crap that kids care about" She said sinking her teeth into one of the sweet bean paste dumplings.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha I like training, tomatoes, Hinata Naruto and my mom. I dislike Itachi and Iruka-sensei's dumb boring lectures. What about you Anko-sensei?" he said as he bit into a dumpling.

"I'm Anko Mitarashi I like dango, snakes and torture" she said with an insane grin "I dislike weaklings and Orochimaru" he got goose bumps the way she said that name with the intent to kill bloodlust sweeping over him.

"So what can a shrimp like you do in the shinobi department?"

"I can do a few fire ninjustu; I'm good at taijustu and have little experience with genjutsu. I also have a growing liking to medical ninjutsu" he answered calculatedly. Her eyebrows rose at the last statement boys usually never had any interest in becoming a medic-nin leaving it to the girls, but she could work with that.

"Well first thing we are going to do is put some chakra and gravity seals on you!" she said with a tone of joy sliding the last dango into her mouth grabbing his arm and shushining away.

"My name is Kurenai Yuhi, I'm 23 a genjutsu mistress and a newly stated jonin." She said after they had ordered their tea at her favorite herbal shop.

"M-my name is Hinata hyuga, I'm n-nine, I can u-use me byakugan and m-my best friends are N-naruto and Sasuke. C-currently I'm living with N-naruto because m-my father has d-dismissed me from our c-clan." She was on the verge of tears as the realization of what happened last night hit her full on. Kurenai's heart went out to the bluenette reaching out she put her hand over the smaller one.

Bythe time their tea arrived her tears were all dried leaving only slight red eyes behind.

"If you'd like you can stay with me at my apartment," the black haired beauty offered.

"No t-thank you Kurenai-sensei, b-but I'd like t-to stay w-with Naruto"

"That's quite alright, but if you change your mind, know my doors are always open and welcome for you."

"Thank you" Hinata said, taking a sip of her tea.

"What is your experience as a kunoichi? She asked changing the subject to make the girl more comfortable.

"W-well I can u-use my byakugan, m-my Juuken is mediocre, I know simple healing and first aid and have no genjutsu knowledge"

"Alright then we will start training tomorrow at 5pm so you can play with your friends after school for a bit. Also I will be give you chakra weights for you to wear at all times to get your speed and stamina better. Also, Anko will help me give you chakra seals to help you grow your pools." She smiled sipping the last of her tea knowing training the petite girl would be a fun and interesting experience.

"What are you reading Kakashi-sensei?" he asked hearing another perverted giggle escape the masked mouth he tried to look over he man's shoulder.

"Nothing your innocent eyes can see" He answered placing it back into his hip pouch sitting underneath the shade of an oak tree.

"Tell me about yourselves short stuff" watching as Naruto huffed at the jab at his stature.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, prank master of Kohona; my best friends are Hinata Hyuuga and Sasuke Uchiha. I love ramen too! Dattebayo!"

The silver haired man's eyebrows perked up from the insane amount of energy pouring off the kid. "What about you cyclops man?"

"Well my likes and dislikes are none of your concern and most of my friends are six feet under" he answered solemnly returning to his book.

"So when do we start training sensei?"

"Tomorrow. Go play."

"Dattebayo!"


End file.
